1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



717 



[You may be a little surprised, but I in- 

 dorse nearly every thing 3^ou have said. 

 When I g'ave -directions for handling the 

 smoker, I meant it to apply to those who 

 desire to use it for one or two light whiffs to 

 bring a colony into subjection; for the aver- 

 age colony requires but very little smoke. 

 I agree with you, when j'ou desire to make 

 a large amount of it, grabbing the smoker 

 in the way you recommend is perfectly prop- 

 er and right; but why use the strength of 

 a Hercules to smoke the average colony? 

 If you sit down on the hive-cover it is per- 

 fectl3' natural and easy to have the thumb 

 next to the fire-cup »and the fingers on the 

 outside of the bellows, for then the smoker 

 will adjust itself automatically to any po- 

 sition, standing or sitting. 



When I spoke about the "front" of the 

 hive, I meant the working side. Perhaps 

 the language was a little unfortunate, but 

 I think most of our readers will understand 

 what I meant. 



I quite agree with you that partially de- 

 cayed elm wood is most excellent, and I 

 have come to prefer it to planer-shavings or 

 excelsior, such as we have used so much in 

 }-ears past. The excelsior does very nicely 

 for lighting the smoker, but it burns out a 

 little too readil}'. Hard wood is very good, 

 but it burns too slowly, and does not yield 

 enough smoke without too much herculean 

 effort, such as you recommend. 



Whoever made the suggestion of using 

 partly burned fuel for restarting a smoker 

 shows he has had experience in the han- 

 dling and lighting of these implements. I 

 have alwaj's noted that partly burned wood 

 will ignite much more readily than fresh 

 stock; but I do not know why I never thought 

 to recommend it with the instructions that 

 go with our smokers. 



As to whether we should make the Jumbo 

 smoker both hot and cold blast, you will 

 remember we some little time ago, illustrat- 

 ed an improvement by Mr. George W Brod- 

 beck, which virtually makes a cold-blast 

 smoker out of the standard Jumbo Corneil. 

 Such a smoker can be converted any time 

 into a hot or cold blast bj' removing or in- 

 serting an inner blast-chamber. 



I have tried the suggestion of Mr. Rozelle, 

 as given on page 594, but it does not seem 

 to work as well in practice as in theory. 

 To make the Vesuvius both hot and cold 

 blast as you suggest would lead to a little 

 complication. The Brodbeck idea would 

 be simpler and more practicable. 



Never hesitate to "wade into" the editor. 

 If I give the impression at any time that I 

 am looking for honeyed words, and for an 

 indorsement of mj' opinions on every ques- 

 tion, I wish to have that impression correct- 

 ed at once. When Gleanings gets to the 

 state where only the views of the editor will 

 be tolerated, it will be a sorry one-sided 

 affair. < Jur contributors are requested, 3'es, 

 ur^edy to speak freel}' what they think. If 

 there is any thing in the Root Co. 's supplies 

 that is not what it should be, be free to 

 criticise. Real criticism of the right sort 



does more to perfect supplies than praise. 

 Oh, yes! I should have said that the diffi- 

 culty with the hinge of the Jumbo smoker 

 is due to the fact that one leg of the hinge 

 is a little too long. In the 1904 patterns 

 this will be overcome. It is not a collection 

 of creosote, as you suppose, but it is a 

 question of the adjustment of parts. — Ed.] 



CAUSE OF BEE-PARALYSIS. 



BY E. J. ATCHLEY. 



As promised some time ago, I will give 

 the real cause of bee-paralysis. Having 

 been troubled more or less with this dis- 

 ease for about 30 years, and having read 

 every thing that came my way concerning 

 it, and tried every known remedy without 

 success, I set out about five years ago to 

 learn first the true cause, and then get the 

 help of the masses in curing it, if really we 

 need a cure. By close observation, along 

 with my almost every-day work with the 

 bees, I have found out the true cause of pa- 

 ralysis, which is as follows: 



It is caused by bees preparing themselves 

 to feed larvje, and no larvae to feed, or not 

 enough on which to bestow the amount of 

 chyle, or prepared food, and the nurse-bees 

 will not throw out or deposit this chyle, 

 and soon the mixture of pollen and honey 

 begins to ferment, or make the nurses sick; 

 and it is owing to how much chyle they 

 have prepared as to how bad the bees will 

 be afifected. This discovery was made by 

 closely watching the bees that happened to 

 become stimulated out of season, or at times 

 when queens were not laying, such as mov- 

 ing bees in winter, or disturbing them in 

 any way at such times as they ought to be 

 quiet. What puzzled me most was that the 

 Cyprian and Holy Land bees did not take 

 paralysis at all, or very seldom at least, 

 and these bees are such great breeders that 

 the queens begin laying at the least excite- 

 ment, in season or out of season, and fur- 

 nish plenty of larva; on which the bees can 

 use the prepared food, and consequently 

 they are alwa3's health3'. Make a colony 

 of Holy Land or Cyprian bees queenless, 

 and they take laying workers in less than 

 24 hours, or before the nurse- bees begin to 

 suffer with a suppl3' of prepared food. 



I have had hundreds of nuclei take paral- 

 3'sis when Italian bees were used, at times 

 when there was an abundance of pollen 

 coming in, and honey sufficient to stimulate 

 brooding, and the Italian bees are not such 

 great brooders, or so quick to take laying 

 workers; hence the bees are diseased, be- 

 cause the3' have no place to use the chyle, 

 and soon swell up and die. 



It is ver3' evident that it is bees that de- 

 sire brood, and which would be great 

 nurses, that take paralysis worst; but the 

 la3dng faculties, queens or workers, as the 

 case may be, fail to suppl3' the brood, and 

 colonies are affected just to the extent of 

 prepared food not used, and this is why 



